Shoppers take in the first ever Black Friday event at Pine Centre Mall       250 News photo

Prince George, BC – There were murmurings of Black Friday in the local retail community last year, as the American tradition continues to wind its way north, but yesterday marked the first official event at Pine Centre Mall.

With US-based retailers leading the way in other Canadian cities, such was the case here in Prince George.  Shoppers lined up outside Target for its 7am opening.

Mall General Manager, Sonya Hunt, says, people were excited to be there and it was a 'busy moment'.  The rest of the mall opened at 8am, and Hunt says, the day was a little slow getting started, but ramped up as the morning progressed.

"Last year, our late night shopping event was one week earlier, the night before Santa's arrival," says Hunt.  "This year, we wanted to tie it in with Target coming on-board, and Black Friday, and it's been a huge success."

"A lot of our retailers have huge sales going on and the tenants that are offering those deep discounts are certainly reaping the rewards from that," she says.  "I've talked to several of them and everyone says it's been busier than they anticipated."

Santa's helper, Tori-Ann Dunford, says she was being kept 'crazy busy'.  Working her way through hundreds of sample give-aways, she was already out of Spruce Kings tickets and told 250News the iTunes gift cards were a huge hit with teen shoppers.

According to BMO's 2013 Shopping Spending Outlook, holiday spending is expected to climb for the third year in a row.  Canadians surveyed expect to spend an average of $1810 this year, up 12-percent from last year, and 30-percent from 2011.

The survey also found more and more Canadians are starting to circle Black Friday as the start of their holiday shopping season – 47-percent expected to shop yesterday, up 15-percent from last year.  And, those planning to make purchases expected to spend an average of $292 on gifts.

Ready to wrap those gifts was 11-year-old Dallyn Long, who has been volunteering with her grandma, Debbie Harman, at the Child Development Centre's gift wrapping booth in the mall for the past four years.

Volunteer wrappers were on-hand for last night's Black Friday event and will set up 'permanent' shop for the season on December 7th.

Hunt says last night really does signal the start of the holiday shopping…maybe even more so than previous years' events.  "The warm weather this year has been such an anomoly and it's meant a slower start for us – usually, you need that snowfall and cold weather to trigger people to come in and buy apparel, so, for us, this is certainly the big kick-off."

Black Friday will segue into Cyber Monday, which is one of the busiest days of the year for online shopping.  According to BMO's Shopping Outlook, 49-percent of Canadians plan to do some online shopping Monday.

"Canadians are early adopters of digital payment technology, so it's no surprise that nearly half (sic) plan to shop online for Cyber Monday," says BMO's Managing Director of Credit Card Products, Nick Mastromarco.  "Retailers and banks alike are starting to offer a variety of tools and services to help make the online shopping experience more secure and convenient for consumers."

For now though, it appears we still hold tight to the Canadian tradition of Boxing Day shopping, with 59-percent planning to save some cash for December 26th.  However, that's down from 62-percent in 2012.